Medical components may be advanced into the human or animal body for a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. For example, catheters, needles, extraction baskets, stents, snares and numerous other components may be inserted into a patient's vasculature, gastric system, or other ducts or passageways in order to facilitate imaging and/or treatment of various conditions.
The medical components may be inserted and advanced through an outer cover, sheath, endoscope or similar introducer device. In the case of an endoscopic procedure, an endoscope may be advanced towards a target site using an imaging system, and one or more medical components may be advanced through a working lumen of the endoscope towards the target site.
There are instances in which multiple medical components may be used in a series of smaller procedures during a single, larger operation. For example, in a “rendezvous procedure,” a combination of one or more smaller procedures may be performed such as the injection of a radiopaque dye, cannulation of a passageway, drainage of a cyst, delivery of a therapeutic agent to a target site, the use of fine needle aspiration to obtain tissue or fluid samples, dilation of a target site, insertion of a stent, and so forth.
It may become difficult to precisely position a medical component within a patient's vessel or duct, particularly when multiple components are used at the same time. Moreover, incremental longitudinal advancement or retraction of the multiple medical components with respect to each other may become difficult to achieve. Furthermore, it may become difficult to exchange one medical component for another.
Accordingly, there is a need for apparatus and methods that facilitate insertion and/or positioning of one or more medical components, such that improved positioning of the medical components may be achieved in an easy-to-use manner.